Giannis Antetokounmpo on his windmill dunk, postgame shoving vs. Bulls
Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ryan Rollins and Bobby Portis Jr. spoke on Antetokounmpo’s windmill dunk and postgame shoving vs. Bulls
CHARLOTTE – There are 50 games left in the 2025-26 regular season, which is still quite a bit of time for a massive turnaround for the Milwaukee Bucks – but not so much time that they let any chance to win slip away.
The game tonight against the Charlotte Hornets at the Spectrum Center is a perfect example, as the Hornets are one of just four teams with a worse record than the Bucks. And Milwaukee already has lost once to the Hornets, which means a loss Dec. 29 would put the Bucks in jeopardy of losing the tiebreaker to the rebuilding team.
Before the game, Milwaukee head coach Doc Rivers acknowledged his team’s 13-19 record has created pressure.
“We’ve had a lot of injuries and we feel like we have to win as many games as we can, as quickly as we can,” Rivers said. “This is one coach right now we don’t have to manufacture (pressure). It’s there.”
The Bucks are currently out of the postseason picture entirely as the 11th team in the Eastern Conference while Charlotte is 12-20. The teams play at Fiserv Forum on Jan. 2 to wrap their regular-season series.
Milwaukee also is looking to win consecutive games for the first time since Oct. 28-30, and the Bucks have not done so on the road yet this season.
As play begins Dec. 29, the Bucks are one game behind Atlanta in the loss column for the 10th and final play-in spot. They are five games behind Philadelphia in the loss column for the sixth and final playoff spot, but the Bucks already have lost twice to the 76ers.
Is Giannis playing?
Yes. The Bucks superstar made his return to the court Dec. 27 in Chicago after missing just more than three weeks with a strain of the soleus muscle in his right calf.
Antetokounmpo was on a 25-minute restriction but still scored 29 points in leading the Bucks to a rare road win at the United Center, and he said after the game he anticipates being under that restriction for the foreseeable future.
Kon Knueppel is out for the Hornets
Rookie of the year candidate and Milwaukee native Kon Knueppel is out for the game against his hometown team, as he suffered a right ankle sprain.
“The goal from our coaching staff and from our performance staff is just to take the approach like we would with anybody that’s hurt, just a daily evaluation of where he is and where his symptoms are,” Charlotte head coach Charles Lee said pregame on Dec. 29. “I would say that I think that he made good progress and we’ll see how he shows up (Dec. 30).”
He is averaging 19.3 points per game on 42.8% shooting from behind the 3-point line. He helped the Hornets beat the Bucks on Nov. 11 in Charlotte with a huge shot late in the game and followed it up with a 32-point effort in a loss on Nov. 13 in his homecoming at Fiserv Forum.
“We will definitely miss just his overall competitiveness,” Lee said. “Defensively I think he’s made a really big mark on our team with his ability to guard a lot of different positions and do it with great physicality. Offensively his shooting has been really good, his playmaking’s been good.”
Bucks probable starting lineup
- Guards: Kevin Porter Jr., AJ Green, Ryan Rollins
- Forward: Giannis Antetokounmpo
- Center: Myles Turner
This group likely will start its fifth game together this season, and the team is 3-1 when it does. The group played 16 minutes together upon Antetokounmpo’s return in Chicago, pushing the total time together on court to 45 minutes.
Per the NBA’s advanced stats, this group averages 127.4 points per 100 possessions and allows 103.2 points per 100 possessions.
To put that into context, Denver has the league’s best offense (124.0) and Oklahoma City has the league’s best defense (104.6).
What time is the Bucks game?
Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.
What channel is the Bucks game on?
The game will be broadcast locally on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin with Lisa Byington, Wesley Matthews and Melanie Ricks on the call.
Bucks vs. Hornets odds
Milwaukee is a 2.5-point favorite over the Charlotte, with the over/under set at 227.5 points per BetMGM.
Giannis Antetokounmpo leads East all-star fan voting
Despite missing 14 games and parts of two others, Antetokounmpo leads all Eastern Conference players in the initial fan vote for the 2026 all-star game. The league released the first round of voting on Dec. 29, and Antetokounmpo (1,192,296 votes) was the conference’s top vote-getter ahead of Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey (1,072,449). There are no positions in the voting anymore.
Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić leads all players with 1,249,518 votes.
Fan voting represents 50% of the vote to determine the five starters from each conference. Current NBA players and a media panel account for 25% each.
The all-star game format has changed yet again for 2026, with two teams of U.S. players and one team of international players (the world team) playing in a round-robin tournament featuring four, 12-minute games Feb. 15 at the Clippers’ Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
The three teams will each have a minimum of eight players. Of the top 24 players in the fan voting, nine are international players.
